Chapter Seventeen
By the time Draco arrived at the Shrieking Shack he was soaked through to the bone. He hadn't even thought about stopping to cast a charm to protect himself from the rain, sprinting as fast as he could to the battered old house.
He pushed open the creaking door, his wand at the ready. No one was on the lower level of the house, and he began to move as quietly as he could towards the stairs. A floorboard creaked behind him and he spun around, but it was simply the age of the house causing it to creak. A thick layer of dust lay on everything, but a trail of footprints led to the stairs. Draco slid his feet inaudibly along the floorboards, creeping through the murky gloom. He stepped on the first step and felt it give slightly beneath his weight. A loud noise echoed through the shadows as the stair gave and scraped against the floor. Draco cursed under his breath. If Zabini was in here, there was no way that he hadn't heard that.
He took another step, trying not to make too much noise, but not worrying about being silent. Draco was two steps from the top of the flight of stairs when Zabini appeared in front of him, standing above him.
''And rightful positions are assumed Malfoy. You beneath me like the snivelling blood traitor that you are.''
''And who was the one who said Hermione was gorgeous? What the hell have you done with her?'' Draco snarled, his wand still brandished.
''Enough talking.'' Blaise flicked his wand and Draco was spun head over heels as his ankle hoisted him in the air. His wand dropped from his hands, and he found himself looking up at Blaise from an even lower level, who smirked at him. ''You were right. Suspending you in the air really isn't sufficient.''
And with that, Blaise's fist shot forward, crunching into Draco's cheekbone. His signet ring tore skin off Draco's face, leaving blood running down into his eyes, stinging painfully. ''My that's satisfying.'' Blaise grinned at the sight of the scarlet liquid dripping into the dust, darkening as it did so. Draco groaned and opened his mouth to speak but Blaise waved his wand again. ''I've listened to you for too long. Now you're going to listen to me.'' Draco opened his mouth but nothing came out, and there was no amount of struggling he could do that could stop Blaise ripping one single strand of hair off his head.
Draco writhed silently as Blaise levitated him into a room across the corridor, where Hermione was lying peacefully on a large bed, the covers pulled back. A bruise was blossoming on her temple where she had hit the floor when Blaise stunned her, but other than that she seemed to be unharmed. Blaise turned to Draco.
''Isn't she pretty? So innocent. So harmless. So defenceless. Now, what does your bedroom look like again?'' Blaise laughed to himself and waved his wand. The dusty hangings transformed to emerald green, and Draco was forced to watch helplessly as Blaise turned the ancient room into a close copy of the head boy's room, giggling to himself all the while.
Finally, he turned to Draco and raised his hands as though waiting for approval. ''You like? Just one final touch I think.'' Draco looked around, wondering what Blaise could possibly do now, just as a cold feeling trickled down his spine. Blaise had cast a disillusionment charm on him, leaving him completely invisible to anyone who could walk in and…further frostiness spread through him, a chill that had nothing to do with the spell. He would be invisible to Hermione.
Blaise pulled out the hair that he had stolen from Draco earlier and dropped it into a glass of thick, murky liquid. It shimmered and then turned into a glistening silver. Draco watched helplessly, his words to Hermione floating through his head – 'Hermione, both of us are more than a match for him, and he isn't even going to try anything…nothing is going to hurt us.' Well that had turned out well, both of them at the mercy of his increasingly psychotic classmate. Draco closed his eyes and tipped his head forward as Blaise raised the glass in a mock toast and downed it in one.
Instantly, his hair lightened to silvery blonde, his brown eyes shifting until they became blue-grey. He grew several inches and his posture seemed to grow more confident as he watched his skin bubbling. Finally, the transformation was complete.
''I've always wondered what it would feel like to be you. Not as special as I thought it would be.'' He smiled, knowing that Draco's muted voice was silently screaming, raging at him. ''You haven't seen anything yet. Isn't the irony just delicious?''
And with that taunt, he turned and lay on the bed next to Hermione, tugging and arranging her limp body so that it was hugged close to his. He muttered 'enervate', and Hermione's eyelids fluttered. Her brown eyes looked at the fake-Draco's and she smiled.
''Draco?''
''That would be me.'' Blaise stroked a strand of hair off her face and Draco began writhing harder and harder, silently willing Hermione to notice that something was wrong.
''Where…where am I?'' She glanced around the room, clearly disorientated.
''My room silly. You feel asleep in the common room, and you were there when I came back from my detention so I just brought you up here.''
''Oh. That's weird.'' Hermione stretched languorously against Blaise, and Draco watched as his own eyes widened appreciatively. ''I've just had the most horrible dream.''
''Really? What happened?'' Draco tried to lunge forward as Blaise's arm slid around Hermione's shoulders, and the long fingers began caressing her neck and face.
''Oh…I went down to see you, and as I came out of the room, Blaise was standing in front of me and he stunned me…I think.''
''Well, it was just a dream.'' Blaise was cursing himself for not modifying her memory. ''Nothing to worry about. Nothing's going to hurt you.''
Draco's face drew back in a silent grimace at the horror of hearing his own glib words repeated back to him. If we get out of this alive, I solemnly swear that I will always listen to Hermione's warnings, he promised himself.
But Hermione, not truly expecting anything was curling herself further into Blaise. ''Will you make my nightmare go away?'' She smiled coquettishly and even given the circumstances, Draco couldn't help smiling back at her.
Blaise clearly couldn't believe his luck. He pushed Hermione back against the bed and moved his body over hers. She slid her hands around his neck and pulled his face down to hers. Waiting for that second of blissful anticipation that Draco always left….
And that now seemed to have been forgotten? Hermione's brow furrowed as she was kissed. Something wasn't right. Draco was being too hard, too forceful, with none of the dreamy passion that left her tingling, with weak knees.
A sudden sense of recognition swept over her as she remembered standing in the sick bay, craning her neck to try and see over Blaise's shoulder to the clock, to see if she could leave yet. Blaise's tongue circled her mouth once more, scraping around and Hermione pushed hard at his shoulders.
Blaise pulled back in shock, only to have Hermione wriggle quickly out from underneath him. She stared at him with horrified wide eyes.
''You aren't Draco.''
''Hermione? Don't be stupid.'' Blaise held his hands out to her, and any of Hermione's lasting doubts were vanquished. Draco would have raised an eyebrow questioningly and asked her who he was meant to be, if he wasn't Draco.
''Who are you? You're Blaise aren't you?'' Hermione's face was screwed up in anger and revulsion. ''What are you doing you freak?''
Blaise pulled out his wand in anger – this time he would erase her memory so that she had never wanted Malfoy, just him. Hermione pointed at his wand.
''And that's Blaise's wand! Get away from me.'' She turned and tried to run towards the door, but crashed into something solid suspended in mid air. The spell holding Draco had been wearing off and it seemed that that final jolt knocked him loose. He collapsed to the floor, knocking Hermione beneath him. Hermione's hands ran over his body, until they found his face. She explored the contours, smiling briefly as she recognised his features, frowning as she felt the drying blood on his face. And then his warm weight was gone and footsteps were heard leaving the room.
Hermione gasped and turned around to Blaise, who was advancing on her, glaring down at her. ''And the little Mudblood's left all alone. Even your wonderful boyfriend's deserted you.''
But before he could raise his wand any higher, a red light sent him flying back across the room. Draco's wand was hovering in mid air. A couple of flicks later and Draco's body freed itself from the disillusionment charm and the silencing jinx.
Hermione flew to her feet and dashed at him. ''I thought…I thought you were going.'' She buried her face in his neck.
''Don't be a bloody idiot.'' One of Draco's hands caressed the back of her neck, the other held a wand steady at Blaise's prone form. The polyjuice potion was wearing off, and Hermione shuddered to think what could have happened to her.
''I don't know where my wand is.'' She whispered.
''Accio Hermione's wand.'' The simple words sent the wand out of Blaise's pocket and into Hermione's waiting hands.
''What now?''
''Take him back to Hogwarts. Tell someone, and get this whole thing sorted. Somehow.'' Draco flicked his wand and let Blaise lift off the ground. ''I suppose we're going to have to go to Snape.''
''Professor McGonagall first. She'll actually listen to us.'' Hermione rubbed gently at Draco's face, smoothing away the streaked blood.
So our hero and heroine went off, their fortunes seemingly reversed. Blaise was imprisoned, and they arrived in McGonagall's office with no mishaps. And then the lady herself came in.
''Mr Malfoy, will you please release Mr Zabini.'' She looked disapprovingly at Blaise's limp form, dangling from one ankle.
''I…'' Draco tried to protest but decided it was in his best interest to just obey. ''Of course.'' Blaise crashed to the floor. One eyelid cracked open and slowly took in surroundings.
Hermione began explaining to her teacher, but before she could get any further than ''Draco and I have been in a relationship for sometime Professor, and Blaise has been…'', Blaise's body hurtled from the floor, tackled Draco to the floor.
He seized Draco's hand and pressed it to the Dark Mark residing on his arm.
He laughed and stared at all of them. ''Now we'll see if the Dark Lord cares about school matters.''
Hermione ran to Draco's side and helped him up, and then saw his forearm. The Dark Mark was vibrant black.
AN: There, a lovely quick update for you! I had to get this one done quickly because I had the idea last night while I was in bed, and I didn't want it to go away – so I hope you enjoyed it (cliffhanger ending and all). You know how you can let me know if you enjoyed it? That's right – a review! You know you want to…so indulge yourself lol. Anyway, I've had like a thousand more hits since the last review, many more lovely people have favourited the story or asked for alerts on it. And my tres lovely reviewers are :
Dracrashed, Evanescent Angel, Dracoshott28, Miss Audrey, iluv2dance, Dracogirl4evr, cmtaylor531, ILOVERWHPDM, Cali'sOwnCaliGrown, year1989rocks, breezie, HarryPGinnyW4eva, CutebIndeGoddess and keske.
So please leave me a review, I am very sad and am thrilled to get each and every one! Much love…Petitesorciere xxx